Cholesterol Down

After my doctor told me I should try lowering my cholesterol through diet, I went and got Cholesterol Down: 10 Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol on 4 Weeks - Without Prescription Drugs by Dr. Janet Brill. I wanted to learn what I could about cholesterol, and hopefully get some tips (and potentially a new diet?) to help bring my cholesterol down.

I don't know if there's a more up to date version of this book, but the copy I read was from 2006, so I'm sure there are at least some more modern studies on cholesterol and the various foods that Dr. Brill recommends.  In some of her discussions on different foods, she noted that scientists haven't come to a consensus on why different foods lower cholesterol (like garlic), so it's possible that there are more studies and theories on those foods as well.

Dr. Brill's recommends the following 10 steps every day (or nearly every day) to reduce your cholesterol: 

1. Oatmeal - 1 bowl a day (with added oat bran) - Cheerios were okay too, but you need to eat a lot of them!
2. Apple - 1 a day
3. Flaxseeds - 2 tbsp a day
4. Beans - 1/2 cup serving a day
5. Metamucil (Psyllium Husk) - 12 capsules a day
6. Almonds - a handful a day
7. Margarine with Phytosterols -twice a day (or supplements - 3 at two meals)
8. Soy Protein - 20 to 25 grams a day
9. Garlic - 1 fresh clove plus 1 kyolic garlic capsule  a day 
10. Walking - 30 minutes a day (not split up)

Although it wasn't included in these steps, she also recommended a daily multivitamin.

I was really struck by how some of these foods are also low GI foods, like oatmeal, apples, and beans, so that made me happy to have been making muffins out of my copy of The G.I. Diet by Rick Gallop over the last few weeks.  His baking recipes usually call for ingredients like wheat or oat bran, and I one of the muffin recipes I made used apples (the other one used pears, which apparently contain more cholesterol-lowering pectin than apples!)

I also really liked that she explained how everything worked to lower your LDL cholesterol levels (as well as just the basics of cholesterol in your body).  While at times I got a little lost in the technical terms of different compounds, proteins, etc, overall I found this all fairly easy to follow.  I do wish there had been a glossary of these terms and other acronyms though!

As to the diet itself, I am a little torn.  While I've tried to incorporate some of these steps already (I've upped my oat intake, and have tried to eat almonds, soy protein, and an apple every day), other steps, particularly regarding the amount of supplements, really turned me off.  12 capsules of Metamucil seems like a lot to have every day (and will definitely add up in terms of price).  And both eating a clove of fresh garlic AND taking a garlic supplement just wasn't appealing (though I admit I've never really eaten fresh garlic cloves, so I really should try it to see if I will like them - this step just didn't appeal to me because fresh garlic is apparently much more fragrant on both your breath and exiting your pores).

I'm also not really sure how you would fit all of this into your day?  Like when are you having the beans vs the soy protein, plus fitting in some garlic and nuts, especially when one meal is already taken up with oatmeal?  In my mind, alternating through some of these steps every few days seems more practical (but I understand you would lose some of the cholesterol-fighting power by not fitting everything in every day if you did that).  I'm also not sure if this diet is supposed to be a long-term thing, or if you were just supposed to incorporate all ten steps for four weeks (which is what the subtitle of the book implies)?  Again, that makes sense to me as a way to lower your cholesterol then maintain the lowered level?  

While I am glad to have read Cholesterol Down (and I'm going to check out the recipes before sending this book back to the library!) I'm not ready to commit to the full ten step plan, particularly as an every day diet.  But I will definitely be incorporating many of these foods into my diet as much as possible.  I'm also going to look into other foods that lower cholesterol (like pears, which weren't mentioned at all in Cholesterol Down) and try to incorporate some of those instead of all the supplements.

The plan also included exercising 30 minutes a day.  Dr. Brill recommends walking, but other aerobic exercises are also effective at lowering LDL, as well as giving you a host of other health benefits like lowering your risk of certain cancers and dementia. This was a good reminder to be more active in general! :)